South American Producers Celebrate NYIOOC Victories After Tough Year

Part of our con­tin­u­ing spe­cial cov­er­age of the 2021 NYIOOC World Olive Oil Competition.

Producers from across the Southern Cone cel­e­brated a suc­cess­ful year at the 2021 NYIOOC World Olive Oil Competition, over­com­ing the uncer­tainty of the Covid-19 pan­demic and ongo­ing drought to pro­duce some of the world’s best olive oils.

Comprising Argentina, Chile and Uruguay, pro­duc­ers from the three coun­tries com­bined to earn 13 awards from 20 entries.

However, the biggest win­ners from South America’s south­ern penin­sula at this year’s edi­tion of the world’s most pres­ti­gious olive oil qual­ity com­pe­ti­tion was Chile.

Producers from the long and nar­row coun­try sit­u­ated between the Pacific Ocean and Andes moun­tains took home five Gold Awards and four Silver Awards from 11 entries, the country’s sec­ond-largest medal haul at the com­pe­ti­tion and high­est suc­cess rate by a large mar­gin.

Producers from Chile – as well as Argentina and Uruguay – were some of the first to har­vest dur­ing the Covid-19 pan­demic, before the sci­en­tific com­mu­nity really had a grasp on the disease’s patholo­gies or how it spread.

Despite this uncer­tainty, Chilean pro­duc­ers care­fully man­aged the har­vest and were largely unaf­fected by out­breaks among their work­ers. They also over­came increas­ingly dry con­di­tions to once again craft award-win­ning extra vir­gin olive oils.

Among the biggest win­ners from Chile was Agricola Pobeña, the maker of Alonso Olive Oil, which earned three Gold Awards at this year’s NYIOOC.

“For the entire Alonso team, win­ning these awards was a joy and pride, espe­cially after the dif­fi­cult year that we have all lived through due to the pan­demic,” José Manuel Reyes, the company’s com­mer­cial man­ager, told Olive Oil Times. ​“It is an award that con­firms our work, what we have been doing over the years and moti­vates us to remain focused on pro­duc­ing high qual­ity.”

Looking at the big­ger pic­ture, Reyes said that he believes these awards are good for Chile as a whole, putting their best oils on par with those from tra­di­tional olive oil-pro­duc­ing coun­tries.

“Chile is a great pro­ducer of qual­ity olive oil, and I believe that over the years we have man­aged to posi­tion the name of Chile at the top of the olive oil world,” he said. ​“The results obtained at the 2021 NYIOOC con­firm the work that has been done, rec­og­niz­ing the effort of the pro­duc­ers who are seek­ing to pro­duce high-qual­ity oils.”

In the 2019/20 crop year, Chile pro­duced about 20,000 tons of olive oil, International Olive Council data show, of which 15,500 tons were exported. As a result, pro­duc­ers from across the coun­try said that NYIOOC awards serve as a pass­port for their oils onto super­mar­ket shelves of Brazil, Europe and North America.

This is cer­tainly the case for Olivos Ruta del Sol, which earned a Gold and Silver Award for a medium and del­i­cate blend, respec­tively.

“These awards help a lot to strengthen our rela­tion­ship with our busi­ness part­ners in New York City and the rest of the United States,” Fernando Carrasco Spano, the company’s CEO, told Olive Oil Times. ​“It is a seal of qual­ity and the con­se­quence of the work and vision that moves us.”

He added that he was espe­cially happy to see the Fine Selection brand, the del­i­cate blend, earn its first awards from the NYIOOC.

Spano said that the secret to the company’s suc­cess was com­plete con­trol of the pro­duc­tion process. However, 2020 com­pli­cated the company’s usual har­vest rou­tine, with Covid-19-related travel bans pre­vent­ing their usual experts from com­ing in and help­ing dur­ing the milling process.

“Our main inter­na­tional col­lab­o­ra­tors could not be here dur­ing har­vest,” he said. ​“We worked with a young team, who were very com­mit­ted to the brand and the prod­uct vision.”

Farther north of the Olivos Ruta del Sol, water stress was the main chal­lenge fac­ing the pro­duc­ers behind Viña Morande, which earned a Silver Award for its Izaro Premium Blend.

“Without a doubt, the great­est threats that we had to face due to our loca­tion are the water short­age dur­ing the sum­mer months and the frosts dur­ing the autumn and win­ter months,” Carolina Terc, the company’s mar­ket­ing man­ager, told Olive Oil Times. ​“We are very proud to see the result of con­sis­tent work year after year, in which we give our best to obtain qual­ity olive oil.”

Despite the chal­lenges cre­ated by the cli­mate of the Casablanca Valley, which is located just east of the Chilean cap­i­tal, Santiago, Terc added that the same cli­mate is what helps the company’s olive oils to stand out.

“Our oil, which comes from a val­ley influ­enced by the Pacific Ocean, such as the Casablanca Valley, is char­ac­ter­ized by its green fruity ori­gin from the incom­plete ripen­ing of the fruit at har­vest time,” she said.

Along with Spano, Terc believes that con­tin­u­ing to win awards at the NYIOOC will help carve out a niche for her brand in the inter­na­tional mar­ket.

“Without a doubt, the award obtained in the NYIOOC com­pe­ti­tion… will con­tribute to the posi­tion­ing of our oil among the best in the world,” she said. ​“We hope this rep­re­sents a tool that allows us to con­sol­i­date our­selves in the North American mar­ket and in this way reach a greater num­ber of house­holds in the United States.”

While all Chilean pro­duc­ers agreed that win­ning at the World Competition helped make their brands more com­pet­i­tive, the pro­duc­ers behind Olivos del Sur, Olisur for short, said their Silver Award also val­i­dated their eco­log­i­cal approach to olive oil pro­duc­tion.

“To win an award is always a great feel­ing, even more, when this is the result of a lot of people’s efforts,” Claudio Lovazzano, the company’s mar­ket­ing man­ager, told Olive Oil Times. ​“In our case, a Silver Award speaks of con­sis­tency in our high qual­ity and great aro­mas and fla­vor.”

“What sets us apart as Olivos del Sur, is our com­mit­ment to the envi­ron­ment. Producing the world’s best extra vir­gin olive oil is only part of our mis­sion,” he added. ​“Doing so in an envi­ron­men­tally respon­si­ble man­ner is equally as impor­tant, which is why we can proudly claim we are a car­bon-neu­tral cer­ti­fied com­pany.”

However, the effort to become more envi­ron­men­tally friendly is also dri­ven out of neces­sity for pro­duc­ers in cen­tral Chile. The ongo­ing drought con­tin­ues to present chal­lenges in pro­vid­ing the trees with ade­quate amounts of water.

“2020 was dif­fi­cult not only because of the Covid-19 chal­lenges, as we needed to change our way of work to avoid any kind of con­ta­gion and take care of our peo­ple but also because of the drought that has affected our coun­try over the past sev­eral years,” Lovazzano said.

“In an effort to give back to the planet, we aim to off­set our car­bon emis­sions by reduc­ing, reusing and recy­cling,” he added. ​“That way, not only can we become the world’s top extra vir­gin olive oil brand, but we can feel good about doing so. And the award serves as a recog­ni­tion of all that.”

While Chile was the biggest win­ner among the three Southern Cone nations, it was not the only one. On the other side of the Andes, two Argentine pro­duc­ers com­bined to win a Gold and Silver Award at the World Competition.

Olive oil pro­duc­tion reached 30,000 tons in Argentina in 2020 as a com­bi­na­tion of pro­duc­ers enter­ing an off-year and oth­ers hav­ing trou­ble find­ing work­ers dur­ing the country’s strict lock­down con­tributed to a lower yield than expected.

However, receiv­ing inter­na­tional recog­ni­tion from the NYIOOC is one of the best ways to cap off a chal­leng­ing year and for the pro­duc­ers behind the San Juan-based Establecimiento Olivum, earn­ing a Silver Award was no excep­tion.

“This is the third con­sec­u­tive year that they have awarded our medium blend,” Maria Gabriela Panelli, the company’s com­mer­cial man­ager, told Olive Oil Times. ​“Our oils are the fruit of a lot of effort and ded­i­ca­tion. That they are rec­og­nized by such pres­ti­gious juries as those of NYIOOC gives us immense pride and sat­is­fac­tion.”

Like Chile, Argentina was also one of the first coun­tries to begin har­vest­ing dur­ing the pan­demic, and the team at Olivum had to work through the uncer­tainty to keep every­one safe while accom­plish­ing the har­vest.

“Without a doubt, the pan­demic was a chal­lenge that we all had to face, defin­ing pro­to­cols to be able to move for­ward with the har­vest and pro­duc­tion of the oils,” Panelli said.

However, the com­pany over­came the pan­demic-related obsta­cles and once again proved they can com­pete with the best in the world.

“Our qual­ity resides in con­stant work; sus­tained invest­ment; an early har­vest; the selec­tion of fruit before grind­ing and the com­mit­ment of our peo­ple in their daily work and in the care of the oils,” Panelli said. ​“Having an NYIOOC award again con­firms the main­te­nance of our qual­ity year after year.”

Continuing east, on the other side of the Rio de la Plata, two Uruguayan pro­duc­ers com­bined to win the country’s first two NYIOOC awards since 2019. Furthermore, the Gold and Silver Award are the most earned by Uruguayan pro­duc­ers at the com­pe­ti­tion since 2017.

After a record-break­ing har­vest in 2019, Uruguay expe­ri­enced a much smaller har­vest in 2020, with a spring­time frost dur­ing the blos­som­ing period sig­nif­i­cantly dam­ag­ing many of the country’s trees. After pro­duc­ing 2,800 tons in 2019, the 2020 har­vest fell to just 700 tons.

Yet this did not dampen the spir­its of the win­ning pro­duc­ers, who told Olive Oil Times that win­ning at the NYIOOC was extremely sat­is­fy­ing after the tough har­vest.

“This year we par­tic­i­pated, because I was sat­is­fied with the prod­uct,” Victor Rodríguez, the olive oil pro­duc­tion man­ager at Agroland SA, told Olive Oil Times. ​“The joy [of win­ning] was very great. Since 2016, we have not par­tic­i­pated and to do it again and win a Gold Award, is a proud moment.”

Rodríguez added that the har­vest has already been com­pleted in Uruguay and while the 2021 yield will not reach the lev­els of 2019, he is opti­mistic about the future.

In addi­tion to an improved yield, he hopes that this NYIOOC award will help the com­pany mar­ket its brand.

“I hope the impact of win­ning at the NYIOOC is very good. I under­stand that it is a com­mer­cial tool, which we have to know how to take advan­tage of,” he said. These awards are not always obtained, espe­cially at such a pres­ti­gious inter­na­tional con­test.”